Charting a path: race, research, and practice in communication studies

ABSTRACT As anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) movements descend on educational spaces, it is necessary to self-reflect on investments in whiteness within our discipline. In this piece, I comment on Communication Studies’ epistemological investments in the property of whiteness, particularly through discursive strategies. Next, I outline a path forward in race and communication research coined Critical Communication and Race Theory of Research and Practice (CCRT). Finally, I suggest how CCRT may engender opportunities for liberatory race research, and disciplinary practices, in the areas of Critical Rhetorical Studies and Interpersonal Communication Studies. It is my hope that this piece supports conversation about unifying race scholars in the Communication Studies Discipline under the goal of disrupting racial logics, rather than working toward academic proliferation.